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Sorry if this has been discussed before.
I had a buyer purchase two quantity and I had a PFRE as the first shipping option because it would be the cheapest for one item. Ebay charged them for one PRFE but two of those items don’t fit into a PRFE together. Ebay did not ask me to send them an invoice, like it does when there is a jump from first class to priority going over a pound. I called Ebay and got nowhere oversesas. Is having flat rate a problem in this circumstance?
Thanks!
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The learning curve on this one is steep! I sold seven large, heavy curtains for the shipping cost of one, and it bit hard! eBay told me my listing was incorrect, then told me to contact the Buyer and advise them it had been done incorrectly and ask the buyer to pay the additional shipping. That went down like a ton of lead! So I learned how to do it right and it’s a PITA!
Basically, you have to use Flat Rate Shipping, but not the PFRE one. You create a listing and work out how much it will cost to ship one of the item. Then you work out how much it will cost to ship 2, then 3, then 4, etc. Once you have a bunch of calculations, you work out an average “cost per extra unit” for the additional items. When listing, you create a new shipping policy and use “Flat Rate” as the shipping option. Put in the cost for shipping one item and add your calculated extra into the box that says “Plus $… for each additional unit” (or words to that effect.) I wish eBay would allow us to select the option “request invoice for more than one item” but at the moment, this is the way to do it.
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Thanks Amatino. I don’t use business policies because I didn’t want to spend the time consolidating the multiples ones I inadvertently generated. Ebay is always off on the combined shipping but it often works out pretty ok or they punt and ask me to send an invoice. This time with the PRFE it was a $7 loss so it caught my attention. Made me wonder if something had changed recently? It sounds like you don’t think so. They told me to send an invoice for the extra shipping or cancel, neither sounded good since it was an old listing.
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I have this issue with a lot of Burt Bees candles I have listed. Candles are small but heavy. It is better for customer to put each candle in a box and then put in a PFRE.
I’ve sold multiple quantity several times and have gotten lucky each time. A couple times I’ve been able to put two candles in the PFRE still. The other time the buyer was just the next state over so the shipping worked out pretty close. I think I lost $1-2 on shipping, but they bought 4 candles at my full price.Bottom line, there needs to be a fix for flat rate listings with quantity. I wish ebay would fix it instead of just expecting sellers to eat it or cobble together a crappy solution themselves.
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I just don’t list multiples of an item anymore, unless they are light enough that I won’t get burned on the shipping (Like some of my shirts). Once a sale is made, I just sell similar to keep the listing up.
If it’s something I think they may want to buy multiples of, I’ll either create a listing including more than one, or I’ll note in the listings that I have multiples and the buyer can contact me for more.
Once in a while, I still get burned, but not too bad. Generally, if someone buys multiples, I’m so happy for the sale, that I’m willing to eat some shipping.
The Ebay combined shipping calculator, just makes no sense for me.
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What I do is just do priority shipping but without any flat rate packaging options. Then ebay just multiplies the weight of a single item x the number purchased, and charges for priority for that large weight. the only risk here is selling so many that you get into dimensional weight land.
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